Student Number : 9803321X - MA Dissertation - School of Literature and Language Studies - Faculty of Humanities / The primary aim of this dissertation is to trace the ways in which Yvonne Vera’s final two novels, Butterfly Burning and The Stone Virgins, provide a discursive space for the enunciation of subaltern histories, which have been silenced in dominant socio-political discourse. I argue that it is through the deployment of ‘poetic language’ that Vera’s prose is able to negotiate the voicing of these suppressed narratives. In exploring these questions, I endeavour to locate Vera’s texts within the theoretical debates in postcolonial scholarship which question the ethical limitations of representing oppressed subjects in the Third World, as articulated by Gayatri Spivak, in particular. Following Spivak’s claim that subalternity is effaced in hegemonic discourse, I focus on the ways in which Vera’s inventive prose works to bring the figure of the subaltern back into signification. In order to elucidate how this dynamic operates in both novels, I employ Julia Kristeva’s psycholinguistic theory of ‘poetic language’. I argue that Kristeva’s understanding of literary practice as a transgressive modality, which is able to unsettle the silencing mechanisms of dominant monologic discourse, critically illuminates the subversive value of Vera’s fictional style for marginalised subaltern narratives.

<p>The present dissertation deals with the artistry of the Swedish artist Vera Frisén (1910-1990). The emphasis is being put on her landscape paintings from Västerbotten, in the northern parts of Sweden, but also includes self-portraits from her early years as a painter. Vera Frisén was born in Umeå, but lived more than half her life in Stockholm. During springtime and summer, she did however return to Västerbotten and the vil¬lages of Stöcksjö and Kolksele, where she painted the majority of her landscape paintings.</p><p>The study has been given a chronological frame, where the first part sketches out the contexts and environments that came to have an influence on Vera Frisén and her artistic development. Consequently, the thesis starts with a brief biographical presen¬tation, but then moves forward to issues more central to the subject. Important as¬pects are for example her years as a student in the art academy of Otte Sköld in Stockholm during the late 1920’s, and her first separate exhibition at the gallery Färg & Form in 1941. Other issues that are being illuminated in the study are the artistic and cultural conditions in Vera Friséns hometown Umeå. The discussion mainly cen¬ters on issues that took place during the 1930’s and the 1940’s – the time when Vera Frisén established herself as an artist.</p><p>The second part of the dissertation includes analyses of Vera Friséns paintings. In the search of concepts that further can explain the more profound existential values in her work, the study also links the themes in her paintings to other painters in the his¬tory of landscape painting. Concepts central for discussion are for example the aes¬tethical and philosophical issue of the sublime, as it is formulated in the discourse of Immanuel Kant during the late 18th century. Thoughts expressed by other artists, writers and philosophers, linked to Vera Friséns own thoughts on the subject, are also valuable instruments in gaining a deeper understanding of her work.</p>

<p>Natural forest dynamics is a foundational topic of forest science. A new Wood Pasture hypothesis considering large herbivore as driving force in forest ecosystem is now challenging the traditional High Forest hypothesis, in which vegetation is regarded as main driving force. In this study, a model-based approach is applied to investigate differences between these two hypotheses and the determine factors in the system. A theoretical landscape of 1 km²formed by 100*100 cells is set up with 100 vegetation patches and free moving herbivores on. Our null hypothesis that herbivores make no difference in vegetation dynamics especially at canopy level is rejected. It is found that synchronization of herbivore behaviors is the most influencing factor of how a landscape might be shaped. It is also found that landscape could be a mosaic of both high forest and wood pasture depends on large herbivore’s herd size.</p>

Fallow is a creative non-fiction book of memory and place. It chronicles the lives of William and Vera Lutz and their lives of struggle on the Northern Plains of North Dakota. It follows a narrator and his attempts to make sense of, and connect to their, lives following both of their deaths. It examines the life of William as the life left behind, and the life of Vera as the life continually felt, but never known. The chapters are held together by the quest of the narrator and a rumination on the idea that the sometimes brutal nature of prairie life shapes the lives of those who live there. That is, this story could not happen in any other place. / Graduation date: 2003

The present dissertation deals with the artistry of the Swedish artist Vera Frisén (1910-1990). The emphasis is being put on her landscape paintings from Västerbotten, in the northern parts of Sweden, but also includes self-portraits from her early years as a painter. Vera Frisén was born in Umeå, but lived more than half her life in Stockholm. During springtime and summer, she did however return to Västerbotten and the vil¬lages of Stöcksjö and Kolksele, where she painted the majority of her landscape paintings. The study has been given a chronological frame, where the first part sketches out the contexts and environments that came to have an influence on Vera Frisén and her artistic development. Consequently, the thesis starts with a brief biographical presen¬tation, but then moves forward to issues more central to the subject. Important as¬pects are for example her years as a student in the art academy of Otte Sköld in Stockholm during the late 1920’s, and her first separate exhibition at the gallery Färg &amp; Form in 1941. Other issues that are being illuminated in the study are the artistic and cultural conditions in Vera Friséns hometown Umeå. The discussion mainly cen¬ters on issues that took place during the 1930’s and the 1940’s – the time when Vera Frisén established herself as an artist. The second part of the dissertation includes analyses of Vera Friséns paintings. In the search of concepts that further can explain the more profound existential values in her work, the study also links the themes in her paintings to other painters in the his¬tory of landscape painting. Concepts central for discussion are for example the aes¬tethical and philosophical issue of the sublime, as it is formulated in the discourse of Immanuel Kant during the late 18th century. Thoughts expressed by other artists, writers and philosophers, linked to Vera Friséns own thoughts on the subject, are also valuable instruments in gaining a deeper understanding of her work.

Natural forest dynamics is a foundational topic of forest science. A new Wood Pasture hypothesis considering large herbivore as driving force in forest ecosystem is now challenging the traditional High Forest hypothesis, in which vegetation is regarded as main driving force. In this study, a model-based approach is applied to investigate differences between these two hypotheses and the determine factors in the system. A theoretical landscape of 1 km²formed by 100*100 cells is set up with 100 vegetation patches and free moving herbivores on. Our null hypothesis that herbivores make no difference in vegetation dynamics especially at canopy level is rejected. It is found that synchronization of herbivore behaviors is the most influencing factor of how a landscape might be shaped. It is also found that landscape could be a mosaic of both high forest and wood pasture depends on large herbivore’s herd size.

This thesis builds on the work of previous coleopteran-based climatic reconstructions to recreate the environment and climate of the last 20,000 14C years of northwest Europe using the data and methods available within the Bugs Coleopteran Ecology Package, and aims to assess the ability of the BugsCEP results to provide information regarding events and anthropogenic changes on environment during the Anthropocene. Samples and data from 134 sites across northwest Europe and the British Isles were included in this study. The Mutual Climatic Range method and the BugStats module based on habitat code classifications were used to create the climatic and environmental reconstructions respectively, the results of which are provided in eight isotherm maps for 14.5-9 14C years BP and 2 EcoFigure graphs for 20,000 14C to present. While the results of some isotherm maps align with the changes described in previous studies, other climate trends are muted within these results. Likewise, some previously recognized environmental shifts in Europe are visible, whereas other major events are not distinguishable within the environmental record. An assessment of the environmental reconstruction results finds that though there is not sufficient material to support any proposed Anthropocene start dates, effects of anthropogenic influence upon the environment may be visible starting within the last 2,000 14C years; the results also show some support for the Vera Hypothesis.

M. Tech. Pharmaceutical Sciences. / Investigates the potential of A. ferox and A. vera gel and whole leaf extract materials alone or in combination with Carbopol® 971P NF and HPMC as excipients in a multi-unit controlled release matrix type system.

This dissertation is a study of women and utterance in contexts of violence in the three selected novels written by the late Yvonne Vera: Nehanda (1993), Without a Name (1994), and The Stone Virgins (2002). A study of the representation of women in particular is appropriate because their role in the making of the history of Zimbabwe has been deliberately undermined or ignored by 'patriotic' historians and politicians alike. This study incorporates a historical and post-colonial feminist analysis of women and their empowerment through utterance in Vera's novels. Their achieving utterance is seen as a way of countering a past tendency to focus on women being victims of patriarchal ideologies with little being done to expose the degree and nature of women's resistance against oppressive, socially constructed gender relations. The kind of violence experienced by Vera's women is both physical (rape and murder) and psychological. Two dimensions of utterance have been explored in this study. Firstly, the study examined what the characters can and cannot say about their conditions of suffering. This entailed an examination of their cultural and contextual limitations as well as their personal difficulties. Secondly, the study investigated how Vera, writing some fifteen years after the events she depicts and with the advantage of hindsight, represents her women characters as agents of their own recovery from the violation perpetrated against them. This involved an analysis of Vera's utterance and her thematic concerns, especially her revisioning of history in breaking the silence of her women characters. Positioned in relation to existing critical works on Vera's novels, this study's contribution to the critical debate has been its demonstration of how Vera, through the use of her narrative technique and unique poetic style was able to challenge the conditions of women in the past in a way that has relevance to present-day Zimbabwe and offers possibilities for the future Zimbabwe. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) is the most commonly used excipient in the manufacture of spherical particles or beads by extrusion spheronisation. However, the use of MCC in beads has its limitations such as prolonged release of drugs due to lack of disintegration. The aim of this study was to determine if Aloe vera and Aloe marlothii leaf materials can be used as excipients in the production of beads prepared by extrusion spheronisation. A 23 full factorial design was employed for optimisation and to explore the effects of the concentration of MCC, polyvinylpyrrolidone and aloe materials on the sphericity and release rate of ketoprofen. Scanning electron microscopy revealed more porous beads when aloe materials were included in the bead formulations compared to the formulation with MMC alone. The bead formulations containing aloe materials exhibited faster drug release compared to that of the formulation containing MCC alone. Dissolution data of the optimised formulations were analysed in terms of mean dissolution time (MDT) as well as fit factors (f1 and f2). The optimised bead formulations had dissolution profiles comparable to that of the formulation containing MCC alone at pH 1.2 and 4.5 (f2 values > 70), but less comparable to the reference at pH 6.8 (50 < f2< 65) due to faster drug release. Aloe vera and Aloe marlothii leaf materials can be used successfully together with MCC in the production of beads by extrusion spheronisation. / Thesis (MSc (Pharmaceutics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.